


The Three Encounters

by CarnivalofBrokenDolls (yourrhinestoneeyes)



Category: Gotham (TV)
Genre: Different Eds, Drama, F/M, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, seasons one three and four
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-09-29
Updated: 2017-09-29
Packaged: 2019-01-06 23:42:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,160
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12221358
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yourrhinestoneeyes/pseuds/CarnivalofBrokenDolls
Summary: Each time that Leslie has met Ed she has felt like she's meeting a completely different man each time, some she likes less than others.





	1. Chapter 1

The first time that Leslie Thompkins met one Edward Nygma it had been her first day of work at the GCPD. She had noticed the tall lanky man watching her, he kept his distance from her, and looked away each time that she met his eyes. Initially she had found it a bit odd that he would look away from her when she noticed him, but after the third time of it happening she had found it strangely cute. It had taken most of her first work day before Ed properly introduced himself. He stood in the door of the examination room, his red plaid suit hidden under the two sizes too big white lab coat that he wore, his thick framed glasses slid down the bridge of his nose, hair hanging over his forehead, and his eyes still focused on the ground. Lee had stopped her work to approach him keeping a small bit of distance between herself and the nervous man, she felt if she got too close he might run and hide like a scared fawn.

“Hi, can I help you?” She asked, voice gentle as she stared at him hoping he’d meet her eyes.

He cleared his throat, furrowed his brow and pressed the folder he clutched in his hands impossibly closer against his chest. 

“I-I’m, I’m Edward. Edward Nygma.” He finally managed out, a nervous squeak to his voice that made her almost laugh.

She wasn’t mocking him, but there was something impossible cute and quite middle school like about his nervous behavior.

“Ed, you work forensics, right?” 

Finally, he lifted his head, his wide doe brown eyes looking at her. His full lips turned up at the corners in a shy smile, before he lost what courage got him to do that much and resumed looking at the ground.

“Yes, yes I do. We work together now, I just, I uh wanted to introduce myself.”

Lee smiled sweetly at him, she placed a hand against his bicep and she could feel him tense under her gentle touch. Ed looked up at her, a faint blush coloring his pale cheeks.

“I-I was thinking anything um, anything you need help with around here…..I’ll be more than happy to assist, not to say you’ll need my help, but if you do. I know how hard it can be finding your way around a new place, I promise I won’t be a bother though.”

This time she allowed herself to laugh, she shook her head giving his bicep a light squeeze. 

“You’re okay Ed, thank you. I’m Leslie by the way.”

He stared at her like he was momentarily entranced, she felt herself starting to blush.

“Leslie. That’s a lovely name.” He spoke softly more to himself than to her.

“Is there anything I can do for you?” She asked him after an extended moment of silence.

Ed seemed to come back to the present, he averted his eyes resuming his prior stance of staring down at his shoes as if they held the secrets to some great puzzle.

“I actually, I was supposed to give you these files.” 

He held them out to her, his hands shaking just the slightest bit. Lee carefully took them from him, she gave another soft ‘thank you’ as she continued to look over this man she figured was somewhere close to her own age. Before she could say much else he turned on his heels and left the room. He was the first man she had met that day at the GCPD who wasn’t obsessing over proving their manliness, he just seemed quiet and unsure of himself, his demeanor sweet, and uncomplicated.

It was a shame he wasn’t always going to stay that way.


	2. Chapter 2

The second time that Lee met Ed was soon after Oswald was elected mayor, a turn of events she couldn’t say she was completely shocked by. Aubrey James was a complete idiot, he existed as a figure head so that the mob could maintain control over the city, prior to now nobody had wanted to run against him. Oswald was the first and with his sudden obsession of chasing Hugo Strange’s freaks out of Gotham, he managed to win over the fear filled hearts of the citizens.

What had taken her by surprise was when she walked out to see a familiar yet unfamiliar figure looming in the dark. Ed leaned back against a wall, he almost melded into the darkness like it was his home, a part of him almost. He wore a wide smile that in a nightmarish way reminded her of the Cheshire cat, she felt a hatred boiling up inside herself when she looked at him, it only grew stronger when he stepped closer to her. There was something mocking to his voice, his stance saying he wanted to intimidate her, but he posed no real threat. 

This wasn’t Ed. This wasn’t the young man with brown hair flopping over his forehead who used to quietly ask her if he could use the examination room to play, this wasn’t the man who used to awkwardly compliment the smell of her perfume anytime she got a new one. This was somebody different, this was the man who during his trial seemed completely cold and indifferent to the fact he had choked his girlfriend to death then cut her body into pieces before stuffing them into a trunk. This was the man who murdered the first friend she’d really made at the GCPD then pretended she had just run off. 

Her anger boiled until she couldn’t contain it, she had felt better when she hit him. She still felt angry when he looked as if he had enjoyed it, that mocking mirth filling his impossibly dark eyes, eyes that were nothing like the bright doe eyes that used to dreamily look at her while she worked. 

This man wasn’t Ed, not the Ed she used to know, whoever this was killed him and took over his body. She had hoped she wouldn’t see him again after that moment.


	3. Chapter 3

It had been three months since Lee had left Gotham, well technically. Technically she had left Gotham, but not by much. She purchased a home right outside of the city, somewhere she felt was hidden away, but she still had easy access to parts of the city she knew she ran no risk of running into Jim or anybody else she used to know.

It was one of these times where she left her one-bedroom home in the country to go into the city, watching as the trees and fields gave way to streets, crack houses, and countless businesses. There was an immediate shift in the air around her as she slowly drove into Gotham, the air was smoggy, and in the distance gunshots could be heard. She sighed heavily realizing in her heart of hearts that this was her home, but she couldn’t bring herself to truly deal with this city again, not yet.

She parked her car on the side of the street, got out and started to head into the small grocery shop at the corner. Something she caught out of the corner of her eye made her stop dead in her tracks though, there was this strange filling that overcame her telling her to look to the left. She followed the tugging feeling in her mind, she glanced over the people who made their way up and down the sidewalk, their heads lowered, and most on their phones. Nobody caught her interest, she initially had the panicked feeling that maybe Jim was nearby, as much as she would always love him she wasn’t sure she could deal with seeing him again, not now. She saw no sign of the detective though, after about a minute of looking her eyes did land on something interesting.

There was what appeared to be a man standing with his back pressed against the wall of a café, he stood close to the alleyway like he was seeking refuge from the sun and the people around him. He was tall, he wore a tattered white dress shirt, the sleeves rolled up to his elbows, black dress pants caked with dirt. The man’s head was lowered, dark brown hair falling over his face, thick framed glasses falling down the bridge of his nose and his arms were wrapped around himself as if hugging himself tightly. Lee felt her heart skip a beat, her feet moving of their own accord as she moved closer to the man or more so the ghost of somebody she knew once upon a time. 

Lee stopped in front of him, she kept a safe distance between herself and the man before her. There were words that were working their way up her throat that formed and died on her tongue the moment she opened her mouth. She couldn’t find what to say, she could only continue looking him over. Despite his head being lowered she could tell he noticed her, that at most he at least flicked his lowered gaze to the black leather boots that she wore, he knew that she was there. Now that she stood closer to him she could see the blood stains on the collar of his shirt, large dark bruises were scattered along his pale arms, bruises on his neck, she noticed one on his chest partially hidden beneath his shirt. He looked beaten to hell and back.

“Ed” 

His name came out less like a question and more so like a soft mothering tone urging him to look at her. She could see him tense when she spoke his name, he pushed himself closer against the wall, holding more tightly to himself as he furrowed his brow.

“Ed” This time she spoke his name more firmly.

He jumped in response to her voice, his head jerking up and his wide brown eyes looking at her. She saw a range of emotions cross his face as he looked at her; he initially seemed confused, then scared, sad, and then finally frustrated. She noted he looked quite ill, his sharp cheekbones jutting out, his jawline seeming more defined than it usually did, dark circles under his eyes. Right away she knew whatever happened to this man who at one time just a few months ago had been the self-proclaimed Riddler was bad. As she looked at him she saw Ed, she saw the lanky man who stuttered and couldn’t look her in the eyes for longer than a few seconds, the man who used to use the examination room to dissect watermelons and take onions out of his Chinese takeout. 

“Y-you’re….I know, I know who you are, I know you.” He said, his voice sounded strained as if it was paining him to try and recognize her.

“What happened to you?” She asked, a part of her mind told her he was a killer.

She remembered Kristen’s remains, she remembered his long list of villains, and his renowned showmanship when he committed his crimes as the Riddler. She then reminded herself of her own history of violence, how even before she infected herself with the Tetch virus she would have had no issue with strapping Barbara Kean down and slicing her throat. She knew people in Gotham started out fine, innocent, and normal. It was with time that the city infected everybody like a fatal disease, one that rotted your heart and your mind.

“L-Leslie, your name is Leslie Thompkins.” He finally said, his eyes lighting up with excitement that he could remember something so simple, he completely ignored her question.

“Yeah, we used to work together, before you killed my best friend.” There was a bitterness to her voice, she expected this encounter to be like their last, she expected him to grin and mock her leftover grief.

Instead he furrowed his brow, a look of serious confusion and frustration taking over his features. He pushed his fingers up beneath the frames of his glasses pressing his index and middle fingers against his closed eyes.

“I-I don’t….No, I remember, Kristen. I….She…I didn’t mean to hurt her.”

There was something broken to his voice, he lowered his hands, she looked at his busted and bloodied knuckles wondering exactly what had happened to him. He seemed off, he seemed to have memory loss, but from what she could see there was no obvious head injury, but every other part of his body seemed rather banged up. A voice in her head told her to just leave him, this could be a trap of some sort, he could be absolutely fucking with her. Yet she stayed there, against her better judgement she reached out touching his bicep. Just like a few years ago she could feel his muscles tense beneath her touch, he looked at her hand then to her face, his features expressed a frightened confusion like a gentle touch was the last thing he expected from any human.

“Okay, let’s not talk about that, I’m sorry I brought it up. Can you tell me what happened to you?”

Ed looked frantically around them as if checking to make sure nobody was watching before turning his attention back to her.

“Grundy, we, I was….I was frozen, Oswald put me on display in his night club, and somehow somebody let me out of the ice. He told me to leave the city, but I-I didn’t have anywhere to go, I can’t remember so many things, but I found Butch, I mean Grundy. I lost him though, we were at Cherry’s fight club, she forced me into the fights.”

She watched and listened as he struggled through his explanation of what happened, she honestly was lost on so much of what he was trying to explain. She had vaguely heard that Oswald had opened a new club, taking over the Sirens and renaming it the Iceberg Lounge, that was all she had known about it. Now she was starting to realize why he had given it that name and why it had such a booming business. Everything else she wasn’t too sure on, on how to connect it, she considered asking him why Butch was called Grundy now or how he got lost from Ed or why he even was hanging around Ed in the first place. She let go of the thought of questioning him further when she saw him wince and place a hand against the side of his head as he grimaced in pain.

Carefully Lee moved her hand to the side of his face, her fingertips trailing along a dark green bruise that marked his almost too pale skin. He flinched from her touch, a mix of fear and frustration on his features as he stared down at her.

“When was the last time you ate something?” She asked ignoring the way he flinched away from her.

“Last week I suppose.”

“Where did you get the food?”

He crossed his arms over his chest, a slight annoyance overcoming him that reminded her more of the arrogant man who was the Penguin’s lapdog, she was almost glad to see him again.

“Homeless shelters and….From dumpsters outside of takeout places, but then they caught me so I had to leave before they called the police.”

In her mind she wrestled with an idea, one she knew was a mix of dangerous and quite idiotic, but there was this nostalgic feeling welling up inside her. This part of her that remembered him, remembered shy awkward Ed who used to get so scared and frustrated when people raised their voices and used to confess to her how much he hated and feared most of the cops at the GCPD.

“I have a house just about thirty minutes outside the city, it doesn’t look like you’ll do too well living on the streets like this….I think you should come stay with me, at least until we can figure out a way to help you.”

He remained blank until she mentioned helping him, he seemed to perk up at that.

“You, you can fix me then?”

There was something desperately hopeful to his voice and his face, something that was pitiful enough it made her lie.

“Yes, I can find a way to fix you. Now let’s get you to my place so you can get cleaned up, I’ll check on the extent of your injuries and make sure nothing is too damaged.”

He smiled at her, a shy gentle smile that brightened up his doe brown eyes. She was taken by surprise when he took hold of her hand allowing her to lead him to her waiting car.

As she drove away from Gotham and back through fields and into wooded areas with country roads she glanced over to Ed who sat in the passenger seat, his head resting against the window, eyes watching with low interest at the passing scenery. She thought she must be insane doing this, aiding a man who killed a close friend of hers. Still though this was Ed, this was actually Ed; she replayed a memory in her mind of walking into the examination room early before she thought anybody else had arrived for work yet. She had turned the lights on to find Ed curled up on the floor near her filing cabinets, he’d been openly sobbing, frustrated cries escaping him. He had panicked when light flooded the room, when he had seen her standing there looking at him he had seemed angry at himself and beyond embarrassed. He had seemed uneasy when she had knelt before him placing a hand against his heated tear stained cheek. She’d gently assured him she wasn’t mad, that she wasn’t going to make him leave the room, she had asked him why he was there so early, why he’d been crying. With slight hesitation he’d told her, told her more than she figured he had ever exposed to anybody else. He’d told her about how the other men treated him, how they called him a sissy, a queer, and how they shoved him and threw heavy objects at him. 

She had just allowed him to talk, to cry, and to express his frustration and anger to her. She had carefully pulled him against her letting him cry against her chest, his tears staining her white lab coat. She remembered telling him that he didn’t deserve any of what they did to him and that they were self-absorbed idiots who were obsessed with proving themselves to everybody. It was the first and the last time she had walked in on him crying like that, it was also the first and last time she remembered him ever being so raw and vulnerable with her. It was like that was the last moment she had gotten to see Ed, the real one.

Until now.


End file.
